Andrew Cosentino - Country Western Star XE (BSXE0015, 2015)

New York based multi-instrumentalist Andrew Cosentino first got in touch with blocSonic back in February. However, it took me a couple weeks to finally give it a listen. When I did, his EP, Country Western Star (CWS), immediately struck a chord and I emailed him back to find out how he’d like to approach the release. Since he had previously released it, we decided to give it the XE treatment, adding a bonus track to the original EP and his 2013 beat tape, Beats For Shadowball (BFS), rounding things out for disc two.

At first blush, it wasn’t a sure thing that the older material would work in context with CWS, but after compiling everything and giving it a good listen, it became clear that there’s a common thread running through it all. While CWS leans more towards the ambient and BFS is more rhythm oriented, the bonus 2014 track “I May Never Sell Blood Again” straddles the line between both worlds and helps to make clear the common aesthetic of both releases.

CWS reminds me a lot of KLF’s Chill Out while BFS reminds me more of Prefuse 73. Either way, Andrew’s sound is something unique and the way he merges live instrumentation with samples is intricate and makes for adventurous listening. I’m quite sure that this young man has much more to say, musically and I look forward to what comes next.

Thanks to Andrew for hipping me to your music. Let’s continue to build. Welcome to the blocSonic fam!

Of course, thanks once again to you for downloading & listening. We always strive to deliver the music you’ll love. Please spread the word about blocSonic, if you enjoy what we do. Remember… everything we release is cool to share! Always keep the music moving… share it… blog it… podcast it! If you’re in radio… support independent music and broadcast it!.

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Release

Disc 1

Disc 2